int sf_command (SNDFILE *sndfile, int cmd, void *data, int datasize) ;
This function allows the caller to retrieve information from or change aspects of the library behaviour. Examples include retrieving a string containing the library version or changing the scaling applied to floating point sample data during read and write. Most of these operations are performed on a per-file basis.
The cmd parameter is a integer identifier which is defined in <sndfile.h>. All of the valid command identifiers have names beginning with "SFC_". Data is passed to and returned from the library by use of a void pointer. The library will not read or write more than datasize bytes from the void pointer. For some calls no data is required in which case data should be NULL and datasize may be used for some other purpose.
The available commands are as follows:
SFC_GET_LIB_VERSION | Retrieve the version of the library. |
SFC_GET_LOG_INFO | Retrieve the internal per-file operation log. |
SFC_CALC_SIGNAL_MAX | Calculate the measured maximum signal value. |
SFC_CALC_NORM_SIGNAL_MAX | Calculate the measured normalised maximum signal value. |
SFC_CALC_MAX_ALL_CHANNELS | Calculate the peak value for each channel. |
SFC_CALC_NORM_MAX_ALL_CHANNELS | Calculate the normalised peak for each channel. |
SFC_GET_SIGNAL_MAX | Retrieve the peak value for the file (as stored in the file header). |
SFC_GET_MAX_ALL_CHANNELS | Retrieve the peak value for each channel (as stored in the file header). |
SFC_SET_NORM_FLOAT | Modify the normalisation behaviour of the floating point reading and writing functions. |
SFC_SET_NORM_DOUBLE | Modify the normalisation behaviour of the double precision floating point reading and writing functions. |
SFC_GET_NORM_FLOAT | Retrieve the current normalisation behaviour of the floating point reading and writing functions. |
SFC_GET_NORM_DOUBLE | Retrieve the current normalisation behaviour of the double precision floating point reading and writing functions. |
SFC_SET_SCALE_FLOAT_INT_READ | Set/clear the scale factor when integer (short/int) data is read from a file containing floating point data. |
SFC_SET_SCALE_INT_FLOAT_WRITE | Set/clear the scale factor when integer (short/int) data is written to a file as floating point data. |
SFC_GET_SIMPLE_FORMAT_COUNT | Retrieve the number of simple formats supported by libsndfile. |
SFC_GET_SIMPLE_FORMAT | Retrieve information about a simple format. |
SFC_GET_FORMAT_INFO | Retrieve information about a major or subtype format. |
SFC_GET_FORMAT_MAJOR_COUNT | Retrieve the number of major formats. |
SFC_GET_FORMAT_MAJOR | Retrieve information about a major format type. |
SFC_GET_FORMAT_SUBTYPE_COUNT | Retrieve the number of subformats. |
SFC_GET_FORMAT_SUBTYPE | Retrieve information about a subformat. |
SFC_SET_ADD_PEAK_CHUNK | Switch the code for adding the PEAK chunk to WAV and AIFF files on or off. |
SFC_UPDATE_HEADER_NOW | Used when a file is open for write, this command will update the file header to reflect the data written so far. |
SFC_SET_UPDATE_HEADER_AUTO | Used when a file is open for write, this command will cause the file header to be updated after each write to the file. |
SFC_FILE_TRUNCATE | Truncate a file open for write or for read/write. |
SFC_SET_RAW_START_OFFSET | Change the data start offset for files opened up as SF_FORMAT_RAW. |
SFC_SET_CLIPPING | Turn on/off automatic clipping when doing floating point to integer conversion. |
SFC_GET_CLIPPING | Retreive current clipping setting. |
SFC_GET_EMBED_FILE_INFO | Retreive information about audio files embedded inside other files. |
SFC_GET_AMBISONIC | Test a WAVEX file for Ambisonic format |
SFC_SET_AMBISONIC | Modify a WAVEX header for Ambisonic format |
SFC_SET_VBR_ENCODING_QUALITY | Set the the Variable Bit Rate encoding quality |
SFC_RAW_NEEDS_ENDSWAP | Determine if raw data needs endswapping |
SFC_GET_BROADCAST_INFO | Retrieve the Broadcast Chunk info |
SFC_SET_BROADCAST_INFO | Set the Broadcast Chunk info |
Retrieve the version of the library as a string.
Parameters:
sndfile : Not used cmd : SFC_GET_LIB_VERSION data : A pointer to a char buffer datasize : The size of the the buffer
Example:
char buffer [128] ; sf_command (NULL, SFC_GET_LIB_VERSION, buffer, sizeof (buffer)) ;
Retrieve the log buffer generated when opening a file as a string. This log buffer can often contain a good reason for why libsndfile failed to open a particular file.
Parameters:
sndfile : A valid SNDFILE* pointer cmd : SFC_GET_LOG_INFO data : A pointer to a char buffer datasize : The size of the the buffer
Example:
char buffer [2048] ; sf_command (sndfile, SFC_GET_LOG_INFO, buffer, sizeof (buffer)) ;
Retrieve the measured maximum signal value. This involves reading through the whole file which can be slow on large files.
Parameters:
sndfile : A valid SNDFILE* pointer cmd : SFC_CALC_SIGNAL_MAX data : A pointer to a double datasize : sizeof (double)
Example:
double max_val ; sf_command (sndfile, SFC_CALC_SIGNAL_MAX, &max_val, sizeof (max_val)) ;
Retrieve the measured normalised maximum signal value. This involves reading through the whole file which can be slow on large files.
Parameters:
sndfile : A valid SNDFILE* pointer cmd : SFC_CALC_NORM_SIGNAL_MAX data : A pointer to a double datasize : sizeof (double)
Example:
double max_val ; sf_command (sndfile, SFC_CALC_NORM_SIGNAL_MAX, &max_val, sizeof (max_val)) ;
Calculate the peak value (ie a single number) for each channel. This involves reading through the whole file which can be slow on large files.
Parameters:
sndfile : A valid SNDFILE* pointer cmd : SFC_CALC_MAX_ALL_CHANNELS data : A pointer to a double datasize : sizeof (double) * number_of_channels
Example:
double peaks [number_of_channels] ; sf_command (sndfile, SFC_CALC_MAX_ALL_CHANNELS, peaks, sizeof (peaks)) ;
Calculate the normalised peak for each channel. This involves reading through the whole file which can be slow on large files.
Parameters:
sndfile : A valid SNDFILE* pointer cmd : SFC_CALC_NORM_MAX_ALL_CHANNELS data : A pointer to a double datasize : sizeof (double) * number_of_channels
Example:
double peaks [number_of_channels] ; sf_command (sndfile, SFC_CALC_NORM_MAX_ALL_CHANNELS, peaks, sizeof (peaks)) ;
Retrieve the peak value for the file as stored in the file header.
Parameters:
sndfile : A valid SNDFILE* pointer cmd : SFC_GET_SIGNAL_MAX data : A pointer to a double datasize : sizeof (double)
Example:
double max_peak ; sf_command (sndfile, SFC_GET_SIGNAL_MAX, &max_peak, sizeof (max_peak)) ;
Retrieve the peak value for the file as stored in the file header.
Parameters:
sndfile : A valid SNDFILE* pointer cmd : SFC_GET_SIGNAL_MAX data : A pointer to an array of doubles datasize : sizeof (double) * number_of_channels
Example:
double peaks [number_of_channels] ; sf_command (sndfile, SFC_GET_MAX_ALL_CHANNELS, peaks, sizeof (peaks)) ;
This command only affects data read from or written to using the floating point functions:
size_t sf_read_float (SNDFILE *sndfile, float *ptr, size_t items) ; size_t sf_readf_float (SNDFILE *sndfile, float *ptr, size_t frames) ; size_t sf_write_float (SNDFILE *sndfile, float *ptr, size_t items) ; size_t sf_writef_float (SNDFILE *sndfile, float *ptr, size_t frames) ;
Parameters:
sndfile : A valid SNDFILE* pointer cmd : SFC_SET_NORM_FLOAT data : NULL datasize : SF_TRUE or SF_FALSE
For read operations setting normalisation to SF_TRUE means that the data from all subsequent reads will be be normalised to the range [-1.0, 1.0].
For write operations, setting normalisation to SF_TRUE means than all data supplied to the float write functions should be in the range [-1.0, 1.0] and will be scaled for the file format as necessary.
For both cases, setting normalisation to SF_FALSE means that no scaling will take place.
Example:
sf_command (sndfile, SFC_SET_NORM_FLOAT, NULL, SF_TRUE) ; sf_command (sndfile, SFC_SET_NORM_FLOAT, NULL, SF_FALSE) ;
This command only affects data read from or written to using the double precision floating point functions:
size_t sf_read_double (SNDFILE *sndfile, double *ptr, size_t items) ; size_t sf_readf_double (SNDFILE *sndfile, double *ptr, size_t frames) ; size_t sf_write_double (SNDFILE *sndfile, double *ptr, size_t items) ; size_t sf_writef_double (SNDFILE *sndfile, double *ptr, size_t frames) ;
Parameters:
sndfile : A valid SNDFILE* pointer cmd : SFC_SET_NORM_DOUBLE data : NULL datasize : SF_TRUE or SF_FALSE
For read operations setting normalisation to SF_TRUE means that the data from all subsequent reads will be be normalised to the range [-1.0, 1.0].
For write operations, setting normalisation to SF_TRUE means than all data supplied to the double write functions should be in the range [-1.0, 1.0] and will be scaled for the file format as necessary.
For both cases, setting normalisation to SF_FALSE means that no scaling will take place.
Example:
sf_command (sndfile, SFC_SET_NORM_DOUBLE, NULL, SF_TRUE) ; sf_command (sndfile, SFC_SET_NORM_DOUBLE, NULL, SF_FALSE) ;
Retrieve the current float normalisation mode.
Parameters:
sndfile : A valid SNDFILE* pointer cmd : SFC_GET_NORM_FLOAT data : NULL datasize : anything
Example:
normalisation = sf_command (sndfile, SFC_GET_NORM_FLOAT, NULL, 0) ;
Retrieve the current float normalisation mode.
Parameters:
sndfile : A valid SNDFILE* pointer cmd : SFC_GET_NORM_DOUBLE data : NULL datasize : anything
Example:
normalisation = sf_command (sndfile, SFC_GET_NORM_DOUBLE, NULL, 0) ;
Set/clear the scale factor when integer (short/int) data is read from a file containing floating point data.
Parameters:
sndfile : A valid SNDFILE* pointer cmd : SFC_SET_SCALE_FLOAT_INT_READ data : NULL datasize : TRUE or FALSE
Example:
sf_command (sndfile, SFC_SET_SCALE_FLOAT_INT_READ, NULL, SF_TRUE) ;
Set/clear the scale factor when integer (short/int) data is written to a file as floating point data.
Parameters:
sndfile : A valid SNDFILE* pointer cmd : SFC_SET_SCALE_FLOAT_INT_READ data : NULL datasize : TRUE or FALSE
Example:
sf_command (sndfile, SFC_SET_SCALE_INT_FLOAT_WRITE, NULL, SF_TRUE) ;
Retrieve the number of simple formats supported by libsndfile.
Parameters:
sndfile : Not used. cmd : SFC_GET_SIMPLE_FORMAT_COUNT data : a pointer to an int datasize : sizeof (int)
Example:
int count ; sf_command (sndfile, SFC_GET_SIMPLE_FORMAT_COUNT, &count, sizeof (int)) ;
Retrieve information about a simple format.
Parameters:
sndfile : Not used. cmd : SFC_GET_SIMPLE_FORMAT data : a pointer to an SF_FORMAT_INFO struct datasize : sizeof (SF_FORMAT_INFO)
The SF_FORMAT_INFO struct is defined in <sndfile.h> as:
typedef struct { int format ; const char *name ; const char *extension ; } SF_FORMAT_INFO ;
When sf_command() is called with SF_GET_SIMPLE_FORMAT, the value of the format field should be the format number (ie 0 <= format <= count value obtained using SF_GET_SIMPLE_FORMAT_COUNT).
Example:
SF_FORMAT_INFO format_info ; int k, count ; sf_command (sndfile, SFC_GET_SIMPLE_FORMAT_COUNT, &count, sizeof (int)) ; for (k = 0 ; k < count ; k++) { format_info.format = k ; sf_command (sndfile, SFC_GET_SIMPLE_FORMAT, &format_info, sizeof (format_info)) ; printf ("%08x %s %s\n", format_info.format, format_info.name, format_info.extension) ; } ;
Retrieve information about a major or subtype format.
Parameters:
sndfile : Not used. cmd : SFC_GET_FORMAT_INFO data : a pointer to an SF_FORMAT_INFO struct datasize : sizeof (SF_FORMAT_INFO)
The SF_FORMAT_INFO struct is defined in <sndfile.h> as:
typedef struct { int format ; const char *name ; const char *extension ; } SF_FORMAT_INFO ;
When sf_command() is called with SF_GET_FORMAT_INFO, the format field is examined and if (format & SF_FORMAT_TYPEMASK) is a valid format then the struct is filled in with information about the given major type. If (format & SF_FORMAT_TYPEMASK) is FALSE and (format & SF_FORMAT_SUBMASK) is a valid subtype format then the struct is filled in with information about the given subtype.
Example:
SF_FORMAT_INFO format_info ; format_info.format = SF_FORMAT_WAV ; sf_command (sndfile, SFC_GET_FORMAT_INFO, &format_info, sizeof (format_info)) ; printf ("%08x %s %s\n", format_info.format, format_info.name, format_info.extension) ; format_info.format = SF_FORMAT_ULAW ; sf_command (sndfile, SFC_GET_FORMAT_INFO, &format_info, sizeof (format_info)) ; printf ("%08x %s\n", format_info.format, format_info.name) ;
Retrieve the number of major formats.
Parameters:
sndfile : Not used. cmd : SFC_GET_FORMAT_MAJOR_COUNT data : a pointer to an int datasize : sizeof (int)
Example:
int count ; sf_command (sndfile, SFC_GET_FORMAT_MAJOR_COUNT, &count, sizeof (int)) ;
Retrieve information about a major format type.
Parameters:
sndfile : Not used. cmd : SFC_GET_FORMAT_MAJOR data : a pointer to an SF_FORMAT_INFO struct datasize : sizeof (SF_FORMAT_INFO)
Example:
SF_FORMAT_INFO format_info ; int k, count ; sf_command (sndfile, SFC_GET_FORMAT_MAJOR_COUNT, &count, sizeof (int)) ; for (k = 0 ; k < count ; k++) { format_info.format = k ; sf_command (sndfile, SFC_GET_FORMAT_MAJOR, &format_info, sizeof (format_info)) ; printf ("%08x %s %s\n", format_info.format, format_info.name, format_info.extension) ; } ;
For a more comprehensive example, see the program list_formats.c in the examples/ directory of the libsndfile source code distribution.
Retrieve the number of subformats.
Parameters:
sndfile : Not used. cmd : SFC_GET_FORMAT_SUBTYPE_COUNT data : a pointer to an int datasize : sizeof (int)
Example:
int count ; sf_command (sndfile, SFC_GET_FORMAT_SUBTYPE_COUNT, &count, sizeof (int)) ;
Enumerate the subtypes (this function does not translate a sub type into a string describing that subtype). A typical use case might be retrieving a string description of all subtypes so that a dialog box can be filled in.
Parameters:
sndfile : Not used. cmd : SFC_GET_FORMAT_SUBTYPE data : a pointer to an SF_FORMAT_INFO struct datasize : sizeof (SF_FORMAT_INFO)
Example 1: Retrieve all subytpes supported by the WAV format.
SF_FORMAT_INFO format_info ; int k, count ; sf_command (sndfile, SFC_GET_FORMAT_SUBTYPE_COUNT, &count, sizeof (int)) ; for (k = 0 ; k < count ; k++) { format_info.format = k ; sf_command (sndfile, SFC_GET_FORMAT_SUBTYPE, &format_info, sizeof (format_info)) ; if (! sf_format_check (format_info.format | SF_FORMAT_WAV)) continue ; printf ("%08x %s\n", format_info.format, format_info.name) ; } ;
Example 2: Print a string describing the SF_FORMAT_PCM_16 subtype.
SF_FORMAT_INFO format_info ; int k, count ; sf_command (sndfile, SFC_GET_FORMAT_SUBTYPE_COUNT, &count, sizeof (int)) ; for (k = 0 ; k < count ; k++) { format_info.format = k ; sf_command (sndfile, SFC_GET_FORMAT_SUBTYPE, &format_info, sizeof (format_info)) ; if (format_info.format == SF_FORMAT_PCM_16) { printf ("%08x %s\n", format_info.format, format_info.name) ; break ; } ; } ;
For a more comprehensive example, see the program list_formats.c in the examples/ directory of the libsndfile source code distribution.
By default, WAV and AIFF files which contain floating point data (subtype SF_FORMAT_FLOAT or SF_FORMAT_DOUBLE) have a PEAK chunk. By using this command, the addition of a PEAK chunk can be turned on or off.
Note : This call must be made before any data is written to the file.
Parameters:
sndfile : A valid SNDFILE* pointer cmd : SFC_SET_ADD_PEAK_CHUNK data : Not used (should be NULL) datasize : TRUE or FALSE.
Example:
/* Turn on the PEAK chunk. */ sf_command (sndfile, SFC_SET_ADD_PEAK_CHUNK, NULL, SF_TRUE) ; /* Turn off the PEAK chunk. */ sf_command (sndfile, SFC_SET_ADD_PEAK_CHUNK, NULL, SF_FALSE) ;
The header of an audio file is normally written by libsndfile when the file is closed using sf_close().
There are however situations where large files are being generated and it would be nice to have valid data in the header before the file is complete. Using this command will update the file header to reflect the amount of data written to the file so far. Other programs opening the file for read (before any more data is written) will then read a valid sound file header.
Parameters:
sndfile : A valid SNDFILE* pointer cmd : SFC_UPDATE_HEADER_NOW data : Not used (should be NULL) datasize : Not used.
Example:
/* Update the header now. */ sf_command (sndfile, SFC_UPDATE_HEADER_NOW, NULL, 0) ;
Similar to SFC_UPDATE_HEADER_NOW but updates the header at the end of every call to the sf_write* functions.
Parameters:
sndfile : A valid SNDFILE* pointer cmd : SFC_UPDATE_HEADER_NOW data : Not used (should be NULL) datasize : SF_TRUE or SF_FALSE
Example:
/* Turn on auto header update. */ sf_command (sndfile, SFC_SET_UPDATE_HEADER_AUTO, NULL, SF_TRUE) ; /* Turn off auto header update. */ sf_command (sndfile, SFC_SET_UPDATE_HEADER_AUTO, NULL, SF_FALSE) ;
Truncate a file that was opened for write or read/write.
Parameters:
sndfile : A valid SNDFILE* pointer cmd : SFC_FILE_TRUNCATE data : A pointer to an sf_count_t. datasize : sizeof (sf_count_t)
Truncate the file to the number of frames specified by the sf_count_t pointed to by data. After this command, both the read and the write pointer will be at the new end of the file. This command will fail (returning non-zero) if the requested truncate position is beyond the end of the file.
Example:
/* Truncate the file to a length of 20 frames. */ sf_count_t frames = 20 ; sf_command (sndfile, SFC_FILE_TRUNCATE, &frames, sizeof (frames)) ;
Change the data start offset for files opened up as SF_FORMAT_RAW.
Parameters:
sndfile : A valid SNDFILE* pointer cmd : SFC_SET_RAW_START_OFFSET data : A pointer to an sf_count_t. datasize : sizeof (sf_count_t)
For a file opened as format SF_FORMAT_RAW, set the data offset to the value given by data.
Example:
/* Reset the data offset to 5 bytes from the start of the file. */ sf_count_t offset = 5 ; sf_command (sndfile, SFC_SET_RAW_START_OFFSET, &offset, sizeof (offset)) ;
Turn on/off automatic clipping when doing floating point to integer conversion.
Parameters:
sndfile : A valid SNDFILE* pointer cmd : SFC_SET_CLIPPING data : NULL datasize : SF_TRUE or SF_FALSE.
Turn on (datasize == SF_TRUE) or off (datasize == SF_FALSE) clipping.
Example:
sf_command (sndfile, SFC_SET_CLIPPING, NULL, SF_TRUE) ;
Turn on/off automatic clipping when doing floating point to integer conversion.
Parameters:
sndfile : A valid SNDFILE* pointer cmd : SFC_GET_CLIPPING data : NULL datasize : 0
Retrieve the current cliiping setting.
Example:
sf_command (sndfile, SFC_GET_CLIPPING, NULL, 0) ;
Get the file offset and file length of a file enbedded within another larger file.
Parameters:
sndfile : A valid SNDFILE* pointer cmd : SFC_GET_CLIPPING data : a pointer to an SF_EMBED_FILE_INFO struct datasize : sizeof (SF_EMBED_FILE_INFO)
The SF_EMBED_FILE_INFO struct is defined in <sndfile.h> as:
typedef struct { sf_count_t offset ; sf_count_t length ; } SF_EMBED_FILE_INFO ;
Test if the current file has the GUID of a WAVEX file for any of the Ambisonic formats.
Parameters:
sndfile : A valid SNDFILE* pointer cmd : SFC_WAVEX_GET_AMBISONIC data : NULL datasize : 0
The Ambisonic WAVEX formats are defined here : http://dream.cs.bath.ac.uk/researchdev/wave-ex/bformat.html.
Set the GUID of a new WAVEX file to indicate an Ambisonics format.
Parameters:
sndfile : A valid SNDFILE* pointer cmd : SFC_WAVEX_SET_AMBISONIC data : NULL datasize : SF_AMBISONIC_NONE or SF_AMBISONIC_B_FORMAT
Turn on (SF_AMBISONIC_B_FORMAT) or off (SF_AMBISONIC_NONE) encoding. This command is currently only supported for files with SF_FORMAT_WAVEX format.
The Ambisonic WAVEX formats are defined here : http://dream.cs.bath.ac.uk/researchdev/wave-ex/bformat.html.
Set the the Variable Bit Rate encoding quality. The encoding quality value should be between 0.0 (lowest quality) and 1.0 (highest quality).
Parameters:
sndfile : A valid SNDFILE* pointer cmd : SFC_SET_VBR_ENCODING_QUALITY data : A pointer to a double value datasize : sizeof (double)
The command must be sent before any audio data is written to the file.
Determine if raw data read using sf_read_raw needs to be end swapped on the host CPU.
For instance, will return SF_TRUE on when reading WAV containing SF_FORMAT_PCM_16 data on a big endian machine and SF_FALSE on a little endian machine.
Parameters:
sndfile : A valid SNDFILE* pointer cmd : SFC_RAW_NEEDS_ENDSWAP data : NULL datasize : 0
Retrieve the Broadcast Extention Chunk from WAV (and related) files.
Parameters:
sndfile : A valid SNDFILE* pointer cmd : SFC_GET_BROADCAST_INFO data : a pointer to an SF_BROADCAST_INFO struct datasize : sizeof (SF_BROADCAST_INFO)
The SF_BROADCAST_INFO struct is defined in <sndfile.h> as:
typedef struct { char description [256] ; char originator [32] ; char originator_reference [32] ; char origination_date [10] ; char origination_time [8] ; unsigned int time_reference_low ; unsigned int time_reference_high ; short version ; char umid [64] ; char reserved [190] ; unsigned int coding_history_size ; char coding_history [256] ; } SF_BROADCAST_INFO ;
Set the Broadcast Extention Chunk for WAV (and related) files.
Parameters:
sndfile : A valid SNDFILE* pointer cmd : SFC_SET_BROADCAST_INFO data : a pointer to an SF_BROADCAST_INFO struct datasize : sizeof (SF_BROADCAST_INFO)
The libsndfile home page is here :
http://www.mega-nerd.com/libsndfile/.
Version : 1.0.19